Wherein Marsha Ward (the founder of American Night Writers Association) and a few of her friends blogged about Life, the Universe, and their place in the World of Writing and Publishing. This blog is now dormant.

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Oct 22, 2007

Today’s blog is about discovery and it will be short. I have had grandchildren this weekend and so have been seeing things through the eyes of a three-year old girl and a year-old little boy with short attention spans. Nonetheless, I have been reminded how I am a child, too, an adult in the perspective of my earthly family, but still one of the “little children” the Lord uses in the Doctrine and Covenants when talking about learning and what we are able to bear.

Outside my kitchen window is a low-hanging mesquite branch. It was windy this morning making the branch bounce and wave. Sunlight came from the east, through the moving mesquite and made a lovely, dancing pattern of light and shadow on the kitchen floor. Our little grandson saw it. He squealed and moved directly into the square of movement on the floor, chasing the shadows, sitting on them and in the patterned light, amazed and delighted and filled with joy because he had discovered something wonderful.

I watched, amazed, too, that something so simple could be so profound, and that the dirty floor wasn’t what this picture was about. My discovery was his joy and I recalled how much I love the interplay of light and dark, the way a stucco wall is lit by the long, tangential rays of a setting sun, and the gold that strikes the Tucson foothills every morning as the sun rises over the Catalina Mountains.

It reminds me that there is joy in noting the small profound lessons that creep into my life nearly every day, and in saying “Thank-you, Heavenly Father, for these tender mercies that are expressions of your love for me, for these tiny glimpses through the windows of eternity.” If there must be opposition in all things, then surely these experiences are the antithesis of the jaded, cynical, authority of our culture that is like a wet towel on the sparks of our finest and most spontaneous emotions.

The sun moved, the shadows went away and little Jimmy went on to other things: pulling pan lids out of the drawer. For him, everything is discovery.

P.S. I posted this blog and went into the kitchen where I made a discovery. The washing machine had flooded the laundry room and kitchen with two inches of water! Okay, find thejoy . . . find the joy . . . ah-hah! Got it. Now, the floor is clean. Sort of.

Like Anna said, I, too, bask in your descriptions. I am especially touched by your words, "If there must be opposition an all things, then surely these experiences are the antithesis of the jaded, cynical, authority of our culture that is like a wet towel on the sparks of our finest and most spontaneous emotions." I am putting that in my quotes collection..

you brought me joy and comfort during this time of fear and worry.thank you.